Wearing apparel



March 3, 1942. R. REISS .ET AL 2,275,090

v WEARING'APPAREL l Filed June 14, 1941 WWK@ Patented Mar. 3, 1942 WEARING APPAREL Raymond H. Reiss, Deal, and Robert J. Randall,

East Orange, N. J., assgnors to Reiss Manufacturing Corporation, Jersey City, N. J., a corporation of Delaware Application June 14, 1941, Serial No. 398,148

2 Claims.

The present invention relates to wearing apparel and is more particularly directed to a new and improved seam structure for facilitating manufacture of garments, such as coats, dresses and the like.

Heretofore in the manufacture of garments, such as coats, it has been customary to stitch into the front edge-seams one longitudinal edge of a reinforcing tape or strip which has its other edge projecting from the seam and stitched to the canvas or stiffening ply by blind-felling stitching. This operation, in the past, has been performed by stitching one edge of the tape to the registered edges of superimposed garment plies and blindfelling the overlapping portion of the tape to the underlying edge portion of the canvas or stiftening ply before the several plies are turned to place the stiffening plies between the garment plies, such as the outer ply of a coat and the facing ply thereof. Blind-felling of the tape to the canvas is a separate operation in the manufacture of the garment, requiring highly skilled labor, involving a substantial expense. Extreme care must be exercised by the operator to secure the tape to the canvas or stiifening ply without placing the tape under compression or tension, resulting from shifting of the tape relative to the canvas, prior to or during blind-felling. That is to say, the tape must not be lapped too far over the stiffening ply so as to place the same under transverse tension between its edges, since such tension results in creating a tendency for the edge of the finished garment to curl. On the other hand, if the tape is not lapped over the canvas sufficiently when it is blind-felled, it tends to force the edge seam outwardly away from the canvas, with equally bad results in the nished garment. Moreover, the operator must exercise care to prevent longitudinal shifting of the free edge of the tape relative to the edge secured to the garment plies when the free edge is blindfelled, since such shifting will set up bias strains in the tape and result in a wrinkled or puckered edge in the finished garment.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide means for eliminating the operation of blind-felling the tape to the canvas or stiffening ply, thereby avoiding the foregoing and other objections to blind-felling operations, while maintaining all of the advantages of the methods of the prior art, such as maintaining the flexibility of the seamed garment edge as heretofore.

This is effected by providing a reinforcing tape containing adhesive material along onlyone longitudinal edge. 'I'he adhesive material is pref- 55 erably of the thermoplastic type and extends inwardly from one edge of the tape a limited distance to constitute a relatively stiff adhesive portion and leaving a relatively flexible non-adhesive portion along the other longitudinal edge of the tape. The adhesive portion is adhesively united only to the canvas or stiffening ply which does not extend to the seam, While the outer flexible non-adhesive portion of the tape extends into the garment edge seam and maintains the normal softness and pliability along the seamed edge.

It has been previously proposed to reinforce seams of garments by means of a strip of thermoplastic material coalesced to the garment-fabric in the seamed edge, for the purpose of preventing wrinkling and puckering along the seam.

We have found that the surface of such a reinforcing tape is completely thermoplastic, and therefore the stiffness imparted by the adhesive correspondingly stiiTens the outer edge of the garment along the seam and increases the tendency of the edge to Wear. Further, such a stiffened edge is undesirable in coat front structures, since it detracts from the appearance of the garment and increases the difoulty of turning the edge. Moreover, this known reinforcing tape is united to the garment in such a manner as to adhere to both the canvas or stiffening ply and front of the garment where the edges are seamed, thus reducing the flexibility of the connection between the canvas or stiffening ply and the edges.

It has been found that the edge or seam of a garment when soft does not wear as quickly as when it is stiffened even slightly, such as by reason of the insertion of a reinforcing tape that is fully coated or when provided with any other material which causes increased stiffness to the outer edge along the same. By the reinforcing tape of the present invention, coated with adhesive only along its edge which projects from the seam, the normal flexibility of the outer edge of the garment along the seam is not destroyed. Moreover, such a partially coated reinforcing ktape with a exible edge stitched into the seams renders it relatively easy for the edge of the garment to be turned, since in the turning operation the edge of the tape is folded.

A further object is to provide a coat-front structure in which the outer edge of the canvas or interposed stiffening ply is spaced from the turned edge-seam of the garment, and is associated with a reinforcing tape containing a thermoplastic adhesive on one surface thereof so as to be adhesively `united with the adjacent edge portion of only the canvas or stiffening ply, the remaining portion of the tape being free of the adhesive in order to retain its normal flexibility. Since the stiifened portion of the tape overlies only the stiiTening canvas and is spaced from the garment edge its increased stiffness is not objectionable.

A further object consists in providing a new and improved garment seam reinforcing tape having a surface along one longitudinal edge containing thermoplastic adhesive material and having its other longitudinal edge portion untreated with said adhesive so as to retain its normal softness and pliability.

A further object is to provide a reinforcing tape, the surface of which is adhesively coated along only one longitudinal edge, leaving the other edge portion with its normal pliability and flexibility and in which the two edge portions are uniform and of equal longitudinal dimensions.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description in conjunction with the accompanying claims and drawing.

Referring to the d-rawing, which shows a preferred embodiment of the invention,

Figure 1 is an inner face view of a front section of a coat with the invention applied thereto.

Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view taken substantially along the line 2-2 of Figure 1, showing the relation of the plies prior to the turning of the coat.

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2, showing the parts in the position they assume when the front is turned, and

Figure 4 is a. fragmentary perspective of the improved tape.

Referring tc the accompanying drawing, in which like numerals indicate like parts in the several views, the improved seam construction is shown, merely for purpose of illustration, in 'the front section of a mans coat. However, it will be understood that the invention is applicable to other garments and to other portions of a coat.

Certain parts of the coat are usually formed of at least two fabric plies of any suitable textile fabric, such as wool, and the garment is built-up from a number of sections which are cut and' shaped individually. Figure l shows a front section f a coat designated generally by the reference character Il. This section includes an outer garment-fabric ply II (Fig. 3), a facing ply I2 which may be of the same material as the outer ply, and an interposed stiffening ply I3 which may be of canvas, I-Iymo cloth, buckram, or any other desirable material.

The facing plies II, I2 are initially assembled with their edges substantially registering (Fig. 2) and the adjacent edge of the stiffening ply I3 is spaced inwardly from the edges of the plies II, I2. As will be understood, the coat front section may include a strip I4, padding I5 and the canvas or stiffening ply I3 is stitched for reinforcenient at Il over the lapel I6.

Initially, the front ply II, facing ply I2 and stiffening ply I3 are positioned as shown in Figure 2, and as has been heretofore customary, a tape or strip I9 is united along one of its longitudinal edges by stitching 23 (Fig. 2) to the two plies II, I2, the stitched edge of the tape being spaced inwardly from the registering edges of the garment plies.

Heretofore, it has been customary to connect the other longitudinal edge of the tape with the canvas or stiffening ply by blind-felling stitching, so as to establish a connection between the edge I8 of the canvas and the garment-fabric through the tape. In the present instance, we eliminate this blind-felling step and the expense incident to the same without sacrificing flexibility or softness of the garment edge.

To accomplish this, one tape surface along the inner longitudinal edge portion 20 includes an adhesive material 2l, preferably one of lthermoplastic character. This material may be -applied either by coating the tape or the fibres contained therein, or by utilizing a suitable number of thermoplastic threads in forming the tape. In the alternative, the adhesive may be applied to the surface of the canvas or stiffening ply, in a narrow stripe along the edge thereof which is to be joined to the tape. In such case, the tape may be uncoated. A thermoplastic adhesive may be employed or an adhesive rendered tacky by the inclusion therein, or the application thereto, of a suitable solvent, depending upon whether the parts are to be united by heat and pressure or by cold pressure.

It is preferred, however, to incorporate the adhesive material in the tape by a coating operation, since it is important that the adhesive be only on the surface against the stiffening layer so that there will be no adherence between the tape and the garment facing ply when there is softening of the adhesive.

As shown in Figure 4, the adhesive coating 2I extends inwardly from substantially the edge of the tape approximately half-way across the same, thus leaving the remainder of the tape in its normal flexible condition. The adhesive stiens the inner edge portion of the tape, but this is not objectionable, since that portion projects from the seam and is not incorporated therein, but on the contrary, overlies the stiffening ply I3 so that any increase in stiffness resulting from the adhesive is not objectionable.

The adhesive portion of the tape is united to the adjacent edge portion I8 of the canvas by heat and pressure, the heat serving to soften the adhesive, and the pressure serving to form and maintain the canvas and tape in engagement while the adhesive in the softened condition attaches itself to the opposite fabric; the heat and pressure may be applied in any suitable manner as by a conventional steam heated garment press, a hot iron or pressing the garment between heated rolls.

The flexible portion 22 of the tape extends from the edge I8 of the canvas so as to overlap the ply II (Fig. 2), and after application of the stitching and adhesive 23 and adhesive union of the tape and canvas, the garment portion is turned so as to fold inwardly the edges of the plies, including the outer edge of the tape (Fig. 3) and position between the plies II and I2, the tape and the canvas. A finishing stitching 26 is then applied to retain the inturned folds, and the garment is then further pressed to form a smooth, soft and pliable outer edge.

Any suitable thermoplastic adhesive may be used, and we prefer adhesives of the nature of cellulose acetate with suitable plasticizers, since this is insoluble in dry-cleaning solvents, and therefore the tape will not become disconnected from the canvas lining during cleaning of the garment. Moreover, this adhesive does not become fluid under normal pressing temperatures, and therefore will not bleed through the surface of the garment.

As will be noted, the tape I 9 extends around substantially the entire margin of the front of the coat from the bottom 24 to the lapel I6.

In applying the tape I9 to the garment, it is seWed smoothly over the lapel portion and may be worked a little tighter between the button holes and smoothed again as it extends down to the bottom of the coat. There are, of course, certain exceptions to this, such as in making a coat or garment for a stout person, in which the working or tightness is put into the edge by drawing the edge tape tighter when seaming the tape. By confining the adhesive to the inner edge of the tape, the operator has a flexible edge to work; thus a better garment can be produced than by either an uncoated tape or a fully coated tape. Moreover, a fully coated tape would be more difiicult to manipulate over the shaped parts of the coat such as the corners and round portions of the body front. Connement of the adhesive to one edge portion of the tape also has the advantage that it leaves the stitched edge exible for folding when the stitched edges are turned, as shown in Figure 3, thus facilitating the turning operation.

It will be seen that if the adhesive were applied to fully cover the tape, the tape would stick to the fabric within the seam, and thus there would be lost the exibility between the canvas I3 and the outer edge or seam of the coat, which is maintained by the present invention due to the fact that the adhesive sticks only to the canvas. Moreover, the binding of the inner edge of the tape with the canvas I3 by the ad-4 hesive acts to hold the edge thereof which does not extend into the seam; thus the canvas does not have a free edge which would tend to slip and curl and mar the shape and appearance of the garment.

Since the portion of the tape connected to the outer plies is highly flexible, the iiexibility of the connection between the canvas and the plies is retained, notwithstanding the stiiening of the inner edge portion of the tape by the adhesive. Moreover, the exibility of the edge not only facilitates Working of the edge in seaming and turning, but also maintains the softness of the garment edge and thus minimizes wear.

In producing the tape, it is preferred that the adhesive material be incorporated by a coating instrumentality of the character disclosed in the copending application of Robert J. Randall, Serial No. 398,149, iiled June 14, 1941, As described in that application, the method of coating involves tensioning the tape longitudinally during application of the adhesive to insure thorough incorporation of the adhesive in the surface to be coated, and then releasing the tension before the adhesive hardens so that both the coated and uncoated edge portions may spring back to their normal non-tensioned length. If the tension were not released until the adhesive hardened, only the untreated portion would return to its normal length, since the hardened adhesive would prevent the treated portion from doing so; there would then result a puckered, irregular and wavy untreated edge having the longitudinal dimensions and form diiTering from the treated edge. By the method described, there is attained the tape herein disclosed, in which both the treated and untreated edge portions are uniform in respect to smoothness and longitudinal dimensions. A wavy or puckered untreated edge would be objectionable, since it would tend to fold within the seam and would be diflicult to apply.

The statement in the claims that the application of the adhesive is substantially confined to the surface of the tape I9 facing the intermediate ply I3, is not intended to exclude presence of the adhesive on the other tape surface in an amount which would be insufficient to cause adhesion of the tape to the outer ply or facing I2, for example, adhesive which penetrates through the tape to the opposite surface.

It will be understood that the tape may be formed of any suitable material, and in referring to the same as being textile, it is not intended to limit the tape to woven or knitted construction, it being understood that any suitable material of narrow or tape-like form is comprehended by the term tape We claim:

1. A garment comprising two facing plies having substantially registering edge portions stitched togetherto form an edge-seam, an intermediate ply between said rst-mentioned plies and having its longitudinal edge spaced inwardly from said edge-seam to be free therefrom, a reinforcing tape having an outer soft and flexible non-adhesive longitudinal edge portion stitched into said seam and an inner longitudinal edge portion projecting from the seam so as to overlap the edge of the intermediate ply, the inner longitudinal edge portion of the tape having applied thereto an adhesive material adhesively uniting the same to the longitudinal edge portion of the intermediate ply, the application of the adhesive being substantially confined to the surface of the tape portion that overlaps the intermediate ply so as to adhere only to the overlapped portion of the intermediate ply, and the edge stitched into the seam being free of adhesive to maintain the edge of the seam soft and pliable.

2. A garment as specified in claim 1 in which the adhesive between the inner longitudinal edge portion of the tape and the intermediate ply is thermoplastic.

RAYMOND H. REISS. ROBERT J. RANDALL. 

